Nor boss Gayle who, as an iconic former Bees player with 186 appearances to his name, could look forward to a trip back to the club which had given him his chance in the professional game.

There were other links between the parties too, notably Swans' coach Martyn Spong who was involved in the youth and community set-up and was once the recipient of the Football in the Community Family award on behalf of the west London outfit.

The build-up was entirely predictable and understandably so.

The extremely personable Gayle was the main story and dealt with the media spotlight in his understated, professional and eloquent way.

A bumper following of Swans' fans made the short trip for the 'Middlesex derby' and the anticipation built as the players looked forward to living the dream.

Gayle was given a warm welcome by the home fans as he marched across to the dugout clapping the supporters on all sides.

Everything was going swimmingly and the excitement among Staines' fans was palpable.

Then something happened to wipe away the euphoria.

The game started.

Never mind a dream, reality strode purposefully across the Griffin Park turf and smacked the Staines' players squarely on the nose and gave their faces a couple of slaps for good measure.

In 15 years of covering non-league sides' exploits in the FA Cup, this has to go down as the least FA Cup-like tie I have witnessed.

It was more like a pre-season friendly.

A desire to get in Brentford's faces? Getting in their opponents' eye-line would have been a start. The visitors showed too much respect and stood off their opponents while letting them dictate.

Okay, there was the expected difference in class but Gayle concurred with my analysis after the match, admitting: "We were far too polite."

His players stopped short of mouthing the phrase 'after you' but there was no fight, no controversy, no aggression and no bookings - from either team, actually.

Brentford hardly needed to break sweat as they won 5-0.

The expression 'we gave it a good go' is often bandied about in football circles. It is inevitable that later in their careers, the Swans' players will reflect they fell short of that on the big stage. Gayle certainly knows they did.

Still, as Boon mentioned afterwards, the day was also about making friends and he was hoping his club would get a pre-season friendly out of it.

At least that bit was achieved, the Bees due to play at Wheatsheaf Park for a curtain raiser on July 29.